blondefish.blogspot.com: February 2011

Cast of Characters

Here I am with some of my value-chain actors at the end of interviews. My translator always insists on taking photos and most of the subjects seem to see it as a kind of honour. Interviews take about 1 hour and are held in many different locations.

My translator (Oom) is the young girl to my left in the photo below:

Although I am starting to get fed-up with the sight of shrimp ponds, every now and again there is something a bit different that catches my eye. Below is the heavily-pregnant wife of the farm owner, feeding the fish and totally covered to avoid the sun:

So many people on a daily basis are very kind to us and go out of their way to show hospitality and generosity, which most often takes the form of a free lunch. Here, a tilapia was fished out of the pond, put on the grill and became out dinner.

Tilapia is a white fish, quite similar to cod although a little greasier but equally as bland. Tilapia easily takes on the taste of anything it's swimming in, so the water used tends to be of the highest quality. Still, it needs chilli, lime, coriander and garlic to make it taste of anything.

This one swimming happily around just an hour earlier is a prized red tilapia, grilled in salt.

Coffee n' Shrimp

In the middle of nowhere, we found this lovely little coffee shop:

Really, we never find places this cute. We're normally camped at a hawker stall somewhere on the side of the road.

But of course, the middle of nowhere in Thailand = shrimp farms. Here they maximised the..er..natural surroundings by building a deck out over, you guessed it, a shrimp pond. Ingenious, but smelly.

A Fortune-Teller Told Me

I am currently reading a book called 'A Fortune-Teller Told Me', which tells the story of Tiziano Terzani, an Italian working as a journalist in Asia and who was warned by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to risk flying for a whole year. He ended up travelling overland back to Florence and this book details his wanderings and wonderings to some extent.

One of the themes of the book is about taking the 'slow train', which in many cases he does, but the aim is to experience travel how it used to be. Travelling overland gives you time to leave the old behind, prepare for the new, and meet some very interesting people along the way.

Well, flights were full and I was stuck with the overland (and overnight) route back to Bangkok. We left Koh Samui in the middle of the afternoon and I didn't arrive home until 5am. Along the way I couldn't see much - it was dark for most of the trip after all - but it's true that you do definitely get a sense of perspective regarding true differences that an hour's flight cannot equate with. AND you meet interesting people...someone whom I will end up interviewing in fact.

Fortune-tellers maybe do get some things right...

Koh Samui

Koh Samui is located on the east coast of the long thin bit of Thailand that stretches south. It's most well known for its drug-fuelled New Moon festival, where hoardes of foreigners fly (in more ways than one) in to celebrate.

I've been working for the past week in Surat Thani, the province just opposite Koh Samui on the mainland, so it made sense to spend the weekend on Koh Samui for a bit of relaxation before heading back to stinky, sticky Bangkok.

And of course, guess which weekend I chose? Not just the New Moon weekend, but the first New Moon of the Chinese New Year. And that has meant unbelievable stress securing accommodation, the boat in and the bus back out and up to Bankgok (flights all full).

It also meant being subjected to unbelievably large numbers of fat people wearing not enough clothes, whether they were tanned or otherwise, and a remarkably large number of tattoos. I thought those were so 1990s...actually, that probably works out well judging by the ages of the people now attending New Moon parties...

Anyway, we were all crammed on to a seriously overloaded Catamaran that transferred us to Koh Samui and upon arrival, had to negotiate hundreds of tourists on two wheels: hiring a motorbike to drive around the entire island is rife.

I've opted instead for a beautiful little resort on the north coast where most of the inhabitants are French, Italian, German and Russian (lots of skinny, beautiful and very brown people) and where I can swim in the sea.

Well, there may as well be some benefits to conducting research in Thailand.

The famous new moon glinting on the sea...

Very, very funny free postcard I picked up there. It says 'Sabaai: Thai for cool, comfortable, relaxed, loose, chilled, free, no hassles, peaceful, calm, tranquil'...and then look at the photo. Classic!

While this was a weekend retreat for me, the sad reality of present day life in Thailand is such that the receptionist has worked for 3 years, 6 days a week without a holiday as it is just 'too busy'. Her family live in Bangkok with her ageing monther (her youngest son is 9), but after her divorce, she needed to find employment. She ended up in a tourist spot as she speaks English, but can't take the time to get back to Bangkok, even for a visit.

BBC

I have a pretty rubbish internet connection when 'in the field' and have been struggling to keep up with the latest in Middle East development. You may find the following link quite helpful:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12482313

Every Little Helps

For those of you who have known me since my University years and earlier, it will come as no surprise to learn that Tescos (the British retailer) and I have a certain affinity.

I can't say it was the white and red polka dot A-line outfit they made us wear in the early days, although there was a definite bonus in having one's place of work a mere 30 steps from one's student bed. I first started working for them half a lifetime ago (it's true: 16 years ago when I was 16) when they were my 10 hour a week part-time job. Not long after that, they transferred me to St Andrews when I began University and let me work all the funny hours that students want: the double-time shifts, mid-afternoons between lectures, never at Christmas, always during the whole summer. They didn't get such a bad deal either - they could call whenever a shift needed covering and I'd be there within 10 minutes, and I soon became the face of Tescos amongst my student friends..so much so that years later when a St Andrews alumni a couple of years younger than me was trying to place me she blurted out 'I've got it. You were Tesco Checkout Girl!'. It's true, I was, but I much preferred the boater hat (and free Smoked Applewood) that came with the cheese deli counter.

Tescos has still managed to maintain its humanity in my eyes, despite becoming an ever bigger and more successful company (and it's not just because I have shares in them) although if you are looking for out and out sustainability, Waitrose and M&S are in a different league altogether.

Tescos is also here in Thailand under the name Tesco Lotus, although as you can see from the colouring below, it's identifiably good ol' British Tescos. Except for a couple of things....

Fortifild Milk anyone?

Look familiar? At least they know their market...and if their market is the world's largest for counterfeit goods, then you better have some pretty-close-to-Vuitton-looking bags!

The wet-fish counter Thai-style.

When life will never be the same again

The wonderful news of the safe arrival of two healthy babies.

The wrenching news of a tragic death.

An inter-continental move by my nearest and dearest.

All of these things happened in one 24-hour period, and life will never be the same again for any of those families.

I took my 'time out' to rejoice and mourn with the aid of a Thai massage, although I didn't quite get the silence I was looking for thanks to the big ol' TV in the corner that she switched on as soon as we entered. Perhaps it was more for her - she did seem to adopt positions that would give her the best view of the telly.

A massage relaxes the body, but less so the soul.

On my way back from one of my interviews today we stopped off at a Wat, a Buddhist Temple. Unfortunately, no chance there for reflection either. Today is a Buddhist holiday and the place was swarming with shrieking kids, lots of prostrations, smokey incense and general hullaballoo. How about a tropical island...now there's an idea...

The Universal Game

A football pitch, marked with the aid of lime, on the bed of a dried out shrimp pond.

The Disco Interviews

You know how teenagers go a bit crazy when they have very controlling parents and then the parents are away? Well that's like the Thai team here in Surat Thani. I heard them before I saw them. The baby-blue surround-sound system van that came to pick us up at the airport after the flight from Bangkok was pulsing in time with the big bass boom and the 'kids' themselves were all looking cool and gorgeous, sprawled across seats with their designer sunglasses, giggling and shrieking in that girlie-Thai way (even the boys) and generally carrying on like we were all in a club. This is the survey team. It was 9am.

12 hours later and I was still with them, my ears were shattered and my mind was mush and I hate, hate, hate girlie Thai screaming.

The interviews themselves went well, and although I still don't much like prying into people's lives, I do find what I learn really interesting. Here I am with today's offerings in our typical interview venue - outdoors but at least in the shade.

And my first ever experience of a live harvest (with the intent of keeping the shrimp alive even after harvest). This is because the Japanese market wants their shrimp so fresh they have to be frozen or boiled alive at the last minute. Keeping them alive to the factory adds about 7 hours of freshness to the final product.

Making use of some local transport:

And here is the largest farm I've ever visited. It's a bit difficult to see but the ponds really did go as far as the eye could see.

A map of the farm showing the two canals that provide water, the light blue water-storage ponds and direction of flow, the sand-coloured sediment ponds, the dark green culture ponds and light green flow ponds from which fresh water is pumped into the culture ponds, and the red waste water flows that take old water from the culture ponds into the dark blue waste water pond where it is treated (tilapia love dirty water) and it goes back around the cycle again. Eventually it gets discharged (clean) into the canal and the whole process starts again...as does mine as I get back into the mobile-Saturday-night-out at the end of the day...

ER

I've been to hospitals in at least three countries that I know of (Scotland, Germany and Cyprus, in the opposite order).

Today I can add Thailand, because today I went to the hospital...

...because of...

...indigestion.

Embarassing but true. It's been niggling for a couple of weeks now - ever since my last night in Penang. And last night I was in so much pain that I agreed to drink the disgusting Chinese medicine indigestion herbal remedy from my new Chinese friend down the hall. It looked like tar, it tasted like tar, and it burned like tar. I could feel it slide down my throat and its warmth creep along my stomach. But it essentially acted like a lid on a boiling kettle and I was able to sleep.

To avoid a repeat prescription, I went to see the doctor today, who prescribed the usual: no alcohol, no spicy foods, no carbonated drinks, plenty of exercise and plenty of milk. All of these things are pretty difficult in this hot and humid country. And I have no less than 13 pills to take each day at points either before or after a meal.

I'm off today to the south of Thailand - just inland from the island of Phuket. Let's see what a change of scene brings.

Chilli and Sugar: A post for St Valentine

The Thai's LOVE Chilli and Sugar.

Chilli is in all their food. Eat any sort of hawker food and make sure you have a litre of water close at hand. Even the smoke brings tears to the eyes and a hacking cough.

In a further insult to 'fine dining', drinks here are disgusting. Almost everything comes from a thick neon-coloured syrup that is liberally mixed with slurry to produce a teeth-staining, stomach-clenching 'drink'. They love it. Every drink in the supermarket is a different primary colour and what they consider 'orange juice' is simply 'orange'.

Everything that normally comes hot, can also be found cold here...such as every type of hot chocolate, tea and coffee known to man. Smoothie's are also very popular, which are generally ice and food colouring. And the cheapest thing on the menu? Coke.

And to his revolting mix they have added sickly-sweet teddy bears, plastic roses and enormous stuffed toys available on every street corners. In any case, here's to all loves everywhere, even the odd, spicey and sugary ones.

A V-day rose from the café under the dorm building, which has seen a marked turnover in profits since I arrived (for morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, post-dinner tea).

Second Sabbath

It's that day of the week again and this time I found myself seated between the General Manager at Sri Lankan Airways and the Head of South-East Asia for Nestlé, which led to quite an interesting discussion on procurment (supply) strategies.

Thanks to El Puma, I had been directed to Jim Thompson's house for my afternoon tourism. Jim Thompson was an American businessman who helped revitalise the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 60s.

The treasures and antiques he amassed on his travels are displayed in his house in Thailand. The house itself is an architectural wonder and has been beautifully preserved despite the presence of two concrete skyscrapers on either side.

Jim Thompson himself mysteriously disappeared when walking in Malaysia in 1967 but the Jim Thompson Silk Company continues to this day, creating beautiful prints and colours.

Ha!

Skype Hype

You've got to hand it to Skype. They have totally transformed communication; at the very least my communication, which seems to be long-distance of late and personal enough to want to see with whom I am talking. How did anyone ever manage with just letters?

Despite the multiple methods of communication available, I still have no idea how there can be so much MIScommunication within the one project that I am a part of.

Skype's upside? Saying goodbye 'face-to-face' to my favourite nieces:

Biker Chick

I really came to love scootering around Paris, even though in the beginning it scared me witless. I'm not sure if my passengers ever moved from 'scared witless' to 'loving' scootering around with me but I wouldn't blame them if they didn't. Being on the back of a motorbike is very, very different to being in control of a motorbike. Being on the back of a bike in the 'sidesaddle' position, weaving through Bangkok traffic and without a helmet is just not worth doing a second time.

The upside was that I could partake of this:

In pretty cool surroundings that involved this:

And this:

Honestly, it wasn't just the loos that were cool, but the rest of the photos didn't come out. You can find out more here.

Namaste

Namaste is one of the few Sanskrit words that has been adopted by the West, mostly by yoga instructors. Over here, it's a common spoken greeting, normally accompanied by a small bow of the head and the hands clapsed together as above. The height of the hands signifies the extent of respect that you show the receiver. It's so common that it can be perfected in many situations such as the one yesterday - when holding a cup of hot tea the fingers met in a triangle over the steam.

The Namaste also takes place when believers pass a Buddhist shrine so that when you see a row of school children bobbing up and down as they pass the corner of a street, you can be sure that there is a small shrine there. It can be rather more alarming when your driver does the same, taking both hands over the wheel and respectfully shutting his eyes to an enormous gold Buddha statue, while travelling at 120km on the expressway.

At least I can say the word 'Namaste'. Many others are incomprehensible, thanks to the Thais' love of stringing an unhelpful number of constonants together. This translates into English too. Just yesterday my translator said, 'so what's the prlwran'? I said that I had no idea what the prlwran was, but when he kept looking at me quizzically I tried to work out 'prlwan' and came up with 'plan', and that was much more simple...

Even Ronald does it here...

Corporate Behaviour

I've been given my first corporate gift. Nope, not a red jaguar casually parked outside my dorm, nor a wad of cash in a brown suitcase...but a t-shirt. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in case you were wondering how far I was getting a long in this world, then the free t-shirt just about sums it up.

But you know, it's not just ANY t-shirt. This one actually provides UV-protection, aside from being plastered with the company's logo all over it.

It sort of went some way to making up for having to be in the vicinity for a stinky shrimp processing plant for a couple of hours (they really pong...more outside than in)...of course it would have been even more effective had I been able to wrap it over my nose...

The purpose of the photo below, apart from showing off my lovely bedspread, is to show the Asian size 'L', which is what they gave me...and is actually a perfect fit. Here is it in comparison to my size 8 vest.

What is this stuff?

I put it in the fridge. Within one minute it's rock hard and got those swirly white lines that you really don't want chocolate to have.

I take it out the fridge. Within 30 seconds it's creamy again.

I leave it out the fridge. You can practically pour it.

What on earth is this stuff?

Turns out that you don't really want to know...Well over 50% of it is pure sugar. The rest of it is oil pretty much. And 13% hazelnuts of course, plus cocoa (fat-reduced), milk powder (skimmed, as if that's going to make any difference) and whey powder. And don't forget the microscopic amounts of Vitamin E, B12 and magnesium, to clear your conscience.

In fact, in June 2010 the European Parliament tried to pass legislation to force all processed foods to be labelled with sugar, fat and salt contents. Seeing that's about all that's in Nutella, the Ferrero company began a campaign called 'Hands Off Nutella'.

I am totally with them. It tastes SO good.